Customer Reviews

Devils and Demons and the Return of the Nephilim

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I read this book and was impressed with its remarkable insights into ancient Hebrew perspective, culture and biblical exegesis. The authors' focus is not only about devils and demons; they also cover topics from the Bible's Hebrew origins, to the understanding of covenant, the Jewish Feasts, as well as a refreshing look on ancient mythology. What's more, they profide great historical and scriptural evidence to support their views. I was appalled by Miss Edith Bottom's review. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but she obviously never read the book! I would highly recommend this book to all my friends! Buy it!!

This book is fantastic for those who want to understand the underpinnings of the Christian religion, its connection with the Hebrew roots and the origins of evil. But the book does not really focus on demons. It focuses on Torah and the roots of faith. It is very well written and full of information you would not get at the local church. Well researched and worth every penny.

This book will open your eyes to God's plan for restoration of mankind back to Himself. From the beginning of time to the end, God has had an overridding plan. Man has a part to play to please God, to know and have relationship with Him. It is called the pathway of Covenant. People and the Church are confussed many times by their understanding of how God wants us to grow this relationship and our responsibility and the blessing that comes from its fulfillment. On the other hand, there are opposing spiritual forces that have the same stratagy ie. to have us choose them (devils) as the recipients of our persuit, increased relationship and covenant. We have termed this deceiptive covenant offered to us as Counter-Covenant. Nephilim, devils and demons, who they are and how they are different and where they came from are subjects we explore from an ancient Hebrew perspective, focusing on the ancient Biblical text, its social, economic, religious, mediforical and historical context. There are two brides at the end of the Bible, one that is separated from power and authority and God, another that is raised up in power, authority, and intimacy with God. We are all being prepared to be a bride. The question is, who's bride are you choosing to look like?

This Book is also sold under the Title "Lost in Translation Volume 1" with the subtitle of "Re-discovering the Hebrew roots of our Faith". This might cause a lot of confusion- I see one reviewer (above) bought the book twice as a result. I have already written a review for the other title and feel I should also place it here for balance.
I found it difficult to know where to start with this critique so I'll begin with the sub-title "Rediscovering the Hebrew roots of our Faith". If this is what you really want to do then this book is not the one you should be starting with. To do that read Marvin Wilson "Our Father Abraham"; Oskar Skarsaune "In the shadow of the Temple" and Brad Young "Meet the Rabbi's". Also investigate the excellent material from "First Fruits of Zion", "En-Gedi Resource Centre" and other serious but accessible academics and speakers like David Bivin and Dwight Pryor.

This book which is written in a very easy to read style began with much promise, but I quickly grew uneasy as it progressed. It makes some very interesting statements as facts, but there were not adequate references (to my satisfaction) to back up or support what was being said. I was therefore never really sure that I could trust what they were claiming. This became more important as the book developed and moved into areas that the authors themselves admitted were controversial. They also make extensive use of the Book of Enoch to support their ideas. I know both Peter and Jude selectively quoted from Enoch, but that does not mean that we can do so freely and uncritically.

The book starts dealing with the language and culture of the second Temple period, and rightly stresses the importance of understanding this when reading and interpreting the scriptures. The next chapters on various types of Covenants and Betrothal are all very interesting but I would like to have known more about their sources to confirm and support the ideas that they were developing. This is important as their covenant themes are referred to throughout this and the following books.

I was very uneasy with the next chapter on "devils, demons and the nephilim". They admit that they are being controversial but I do not think that their case for demons being the departed spirits/souls of the nephilim is at all convincing or safe. I also felt that they were on dangerous ground with their treatment in Myths and Legends from around the world and what they call "counter-covenant". Moses was emphatic that we were not to enquire into how the pagans worshiped "their gods" and not to apply their principles to our faith (Deut 12:29-32). I am unhappy with a perspective which suggests that everything satan does has been copied from the true God, so there must be some truth in it. Even if that were true, it ignores the possibility that the truth has been so distorted that it is impossible to discern what that truth was. Best stick to what God has chosen to reveal than guess through what satan has "copied". Given that caveat I realise that some legends can be helpful in the corroboration of biblical stories like the flood, but I believe caution is advised where the bible is not so explicit.

There is a chapter on the Menorah and the tabernacle in which they blend in their thoughts on the various covenants. Without more references it was difficult to discern what was from an overactive imagination, and what was from genuine research. I understand the menorah theme will return in volume 2 as they attempt to expound on the Book of Revelation.

The book's chapter on the Festivals is too superficial for my liking and leaves too many gaps. I would advise anyone interested in the Festivals to read several of the many other books which are dedicated exclusively to them instead. The authors do concede that they have been unable to go into as much depth as they would like in all their subjects and suggest that more will be revealed in volume two.

There is also a chapter which tries to marry the science of colours and what is claimed to be their meanings in the scriptures. This is then linked with the different covenants God made with various men and mankind, and interpretations are made from this. Hmmmm.

Some of the statements made suggested that the authors' outlook and research was restricted. For instance they refer to the days of the week being named after Hellenistic or Scandinavian deities. This is true in English, but not all languages. In Spanish and Portuguese for example, "Saturday" is named "Sabado" -from the Hebrew Sabbath. This meant that some assumptions applied to Anglo-American culture, but not for others. In this internet age when book markets are now truly "global", I think we should take more care. It can undermine your argument when you are read by people who live where what you say is not true.

Overall I felt the scholarship in this book was amateur. When making new and controversial claims, you really have to have better references from kosher sources to support your position. I intend to read volume two, but am going to be on my guard. I certainly would not recommend this book to any one new to Christianity or to the Hebraic roots of the Christian faith. I am reminded of the advice of the sages concerning the first two chapters of Ezekiel. These are read at Shavuot/Pentecost which includes celebrating the giving of Torah. The advice is not to seek mystical experiences or revelation until you are first firmly grounded in Torah or scriptures. In line with this I would counsel leaving this book until you had several years of reading other foundational sources such as mentioned at the beginning of this review.

"Devils and Demons and the return of the Nephilim" is a very entertaining work, the first three chapters go into great detail examining the language differences between the traditional "King James" version of the bible and the original Hebrew text, and the Authors also explain ancient Hebrew marriage traditions and various other customs.

However there are some problems with this book, Firstly the book doesn't actually cover Devils and Demons until chapter 4, the Authors explain the differences in terminology and then gloss over where the Devil came from and a little bit about the Archangels, it is hardly a detailed exposition. I continually found myself looking at the cover of this book to try and remember what I was reading, and what it was supposed to be about, if you're looking for something covering demonology or that gives a thorough look at the origins of evil, etc. This is not what you're looking for.

My second problem with this book comes in chapter 6, called Myth vs. Truth, where the Author makes a few assertions that are just plain wrong or don't make sense, for example:

"...almost every one of the common threads of truth that wind their way throughout mythology, no matter how cunningly they twist and turn, came straight from the bible."
(Chapter 6, page 131)

Then it goes on to give examples of Egyptian and Greek mythology, I'm Sorry but Egyptian mythology outdates the Abrahamic religions by at least 1000 years so how is it possible that they copied something yet to be written?

From here on the Authors point out that most Christian traditions and holidays are Pagan in origin and that the people who worshipped these false gods were wrong, and they believed all the Myths to be completely factual.
So the book becomes a bit hypocritical pointing out the lack of evidence for the religions of ancient cultures while ignoring the lack of evidence for their own, they quote the bible as being literal truth and being factually accurate, yet they quote the book of Enoch which talks about there being 300 foot tall giants roaming the earth and they were all killed during the great flood, why haven't their fossils been found, etc?

Aside from these factual errors there are also logical fallacies throughout the book as well (like saying we know such and such is true because the bible says its true, which begs the question) but overall I am giving this a 3 because I learned allot about ancient Hebrew culture and some insight about the complexities of the Hebrew language, however I found the scare tactics and factual errors towards the end of the book disturbing.

One of the Authors, "John Klein" has also written a review for this book and given himself 5 stars twice, it's actually the same review posted two times by the same person, this reeks of intellectual dishonesty and makes me wonder how diligently this book was researched and questions the integrity of the authors.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and thought the authors did a very good job and even touched on some subjects that I myself recognized and they expanded on it even farther. It only has one chapter on Demons and Nephilim, which I regretted and they keep mentioning a second book which is disconcerting as it alludes to having even more information on the subject of Demons and Nephilim. I hope they do produce it.
On a seriouse note- I do feel they are in error as far as there not actually being a new covenant!! Please read Hebrews 9:15 +/- all of chapter 9 talks on the subject of the old and new covenant and that Crist died for the new to be accessable to us.

This book, while an interesting read, is more of a discourse on the origins of scripture and the interpretation of the Hebrew language than a detailed expose' of the Nephilim. If you are looking for a book that deals specifically with the Nephilim then I would recommend you look elsewhere. I think the title was more of marketing ploy vice an indicator of the main topic of the book.

I bought the book because of the subject of the title. When I began reading it, I started wondering why the additional subject matter was included. Then, it began to make complete sense, since for too long, Christianity has lost its moorings.

I have been studying Scripture since my early teens (I'm now 52), and I am amazed at how much I continue to miss solely because the Bible (especially the New Testament) has been removed from its Judiaistic roots! That is not only tragic, but infinitely wrong. We cannot seek to understand God's Word, apart from the culture of Judiasm that God also created. Most who wrote the Bible were Jewish (and there are some good arguments for believing that Luke was at least partly Jewish in heritage.

I have already ordered the other two books by these same authors and look forward to receiving them. Whether I'm studying the works of Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, David Baron, or some other Jewish believer, I am constantly amazed at just how accurate this one statement is from the back of this book: "Many of the Bible's so-called 'mysteries' fall away as the authors demonstrate how a basic understanding of the ancient Hebraic culture can profoundly clarify that message."

I have a Bachelor of Bible degree and a Masters in Biblical Studies, and I cannot stress enough just how important studying and knowing the biblical culture is, in order to more fully understand what God is saying to us. Instead, people too often take His Words out of the culture, and due to that, it's no wonder that all manner of weird and off-kilter meanings are applied to Scripture!

Christians, let's get back to the roots of our faith. While we will never be "Jewish," we can learn a great deal from their culture, as it is uniquely and inextricably bound up within the fabric of God's Word!

This is an excellent book. If you want to know more about how Gods Covenants go along with Jewish traditions this is a must. A lot of reserch went into this book. Don't let the title fool you. It is truth and must read. It keeps yo interested to the end. You will want to read it again

I loved this book. I read it all in short order and was totally fixated on it. There's some great info, that I didn't know! I've been a Christian all of my life, but was incredibly ignorant about a lot of this. Please tell me what the next book is called so I can get it.

Also,....to repeat a point. This book was definitely mis-titled. It did get my attention though, and bought the book because of my interest in the Nephilim. I am disappointed in the fact that there was very little info about devils, demons and Nephilim, but was still engaged in the book, as it is full of great info about the Hebrew traditions and God's covenant.